• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 9, 2006

In an effort to spice up its media roster, Procter & Gamble has pulled media buying and planning for a high-profile brand from its lead media agency and integrated it back into a brand agency--a move the packaged goods giant describes as a "test," but which, if successful, it might consider extending to other brands. The move comes as big marketers like P&G are rethinking the benefits of unbundled media services, and coincides with a mini trend of media account wins by full-service shops.

A surprising number of those wins are going to agencies like Wieden+Kennedy, which Wednesday was named to handle creative, communication planning, and media buying for P&G's Old Spice brand. Old Spice's communication planning and media buying had been handled by Publicis' Starcom MediaVest Group. Creative was handled by Publicis' Saatchi unit. The shift came the same day that another big marketer, satellite TV provider DirecTV, pulled its $200 million media account from Omnicom's OMD and consolidated it with creative at Interpublic's Deutsch unit.

That shift signals something of a losing streak for OMD, which recently lost ABC's $70 million-plus media-only account to W+K, and its share of Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.'s $150 million media account, which was consolidated at WPP's MindShare unit last month.

The reverse migration of media assignments back to brand agencies is curious, especially since the losing agencies--shops like OMD and SMG--are considered best in class among media agencies. SMG's Starcom unit recently won MEDIA magazine's "Media Agency of the Year" award for 2005. OMD, a close contender for that award, has won several others, and is expected to be named Advertising Age's "Media Agency of the Year" next month.

These shifts are not isolated examples. Some other high-profile media accounts have shifted to brand agencies in recent months, including NBC's media planning account, which went to Publicis' Fallon unit, and BMW's media account, which moved from Publicis' Optimedia unit to BMW's brand agency, GSD&M.

Such shifts have given rise to speculation that big marketers may be growing concerned about the unbundling of media--especially media strategy--from the brand agencies that also craft their advertising messages. It's a backlash that has been brewing for more than a decade, and follows the unbundling of big agency media departments into freestanding media services shops that have effectively consolidated the world of media planning and buying.

In fact, it looked like P&G was contributing to that trend a year-and-a-half ago when it divorced media planning from all of its roster agencies and consolidated that under the new, higher-order concept of communication planning at two big media shops: SMG and Aegis Group's Carat North America. But the decision to at least test the reintegration of media at a brand agency signals that P&G may also be rethinking that approach.

"We welcome this opportunity to test and learn from having advertising, communication planning and buying activity in one market for Old Spice, under Wieden+Kennedy's direction," Jim Stengel, P&G's global marketing officer, stated in the announcement. He went on to note that P&G is striving to develop "more integrated and consumer-centric marketing approaches."

While consumer centricity is what communication planning is all about, some marketers fear that unbundling that degree of communications strategy to a media agency may lead to disintegrated advertising campaigns, which may in turn be contributing to the reconsolidation of media at brand agencies.

In fact, an executive familiar with P&G's communication planning roster says this is not the first time the packaged goods marketer has reconsolidated that function. Last fall, shortly after W+K was named the brand agency for P&G's Iams and Eukanuba pet food lines, P&G also pulled the communication planning for those brands from Carat and consolidated it with W+K. A P&G spokesperson was unable to confirm that at press time, but emphasized that the Old Spice shift at least is still only a test.

"Hopefully this will lead to a more innovative approach to brand building," said P&G spokesperson Tami Jones. "We're hoping this is not just a good experience for the Old Spice brand, but is something we can extend to our other brands."

She emphasized that P&G would have to see how the test turns out before deciding whether to extend it more broadly, and that W+K was selected for it, because it is relatively new to P&G's roster. "There's not a lot of biases of what P&G will like and will not like," she said, adding that W+K has a great deal of experience advertising brands that are popular with males, the target of the Old Spice brand.

As symbolic as the test may be, executives at P&G's media shops are not worried--for now. SMG, in particular, has been growing in favor at P&G, winning its $800 million media account for Gillette when P&G finished its acquisition of that company late last year.

Meanwhile, major brand agencies like W+K, Deutsch, GSD&M, and Fallon continue to rack up media business.

At Deutsch, the $200 million DirecTV business is a return to the agency, which handled the account from 2000 to 2004. In addition to media planning and buying, Deutsch will now handle all creative responsibilities covering a range of consumer communications including television, radio, print, and more--both on a national and local basis.

More striking is the media-only assignments that have gone to these brand shops. W+K scored the ABC Television Network account, along with ABC Family Channel, as part of a consolidation of media buying duties at that agency. W+K already handled Disney Channel. Earlier this week, W+K won some of mass retailer's Target's account. Last month, Fallon captured media planning responsibilities for the estimated $140 million NBC Universal Television account, which includes NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo, USA, and Sci Fi networks.